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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25688116">Just How Wonderful You Are</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KannaOphelia/pseuds/KannaOphelia'>KannaOphelia</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Calamity Jane (1953)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Calam is a Gay Disaster, F/F, First Kiss, First Time, Katie is terrible at pretending to be Adelaid, Moving at Calam's natural speed, Romance Novel/Movie Tropes, Romantic Fluff, Strangers to Friends to Lovers to Pretty Much Married, Sweet, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, True Love, We all know Katie and Calam's cabin should have been the true ending, happy ever after</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:33:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,773</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25688116</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KannaOphelia/pseuds/KannaOphelia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Calamity Jane ever thought about kissing someone was when she saw Adelaid Adams dancing and singing in front of her dressing room mirror.</p><p>She didn't think of kissing at first, naturally. She had to deal with the feeling she had been thrown from a bolting horse first, something she hadn't experienced since she was four years old. The feeling of flying and plummeting, taking split seconds and at the same time almost an eternity. The impact sending her breath and thought far away, until there was only shaken bones and a splitting head, and one coherent thought:</p><p>  <em>She's the most beautiful thing I ever seen.</em></p><p>Katie and Calam spend the night in a hotel while waiting for the Deadwood Stage, and things unfold a little differently.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Calamity Jane/Katie Brown</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Limited Theatrical Release 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Just How Wonderful You Are</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caro_Dee/gifts">Caro Dee (Caro_Dee)</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi Caro Dee! Thank you for inspiring me to write a pairing I had always meant to one day, a childhood pairing of my heart. I hope it is as bubbly and feel-good (and shamelessly romantic) as you hope.</p><p>cw: Brief mentions of period-typical religion, but no angst or homophobia, self-directed or otherwise. This is all feel-good romance.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time Calamity Jane ever thought about kissing someone was when she saw Adelaid Adams dancing and singing in front of her dressing room mirror.</p><p>She didn't think of kissing at first, naturally. She had to deal with the feeling she had been thrown from a bolting horse first, something she hadn't experienced since she was four years old. The feeling of flying and plummeting, taking split seconds and at the same time almost an eternity. The impact sending her breath and thought far away, until there was only shaken bones and a splitting head, and one coherent thought:</p><p>
  <em>She's the most beautiful thing I ever seen.</em>
</p><p>And then she had to focus on protecting Adelaid from whatever terrible varmint had broken into her room. She felt a strange sense of familiarity, like somehow she had always known Adelaid's clever gray eyes with their fringe of dark lashes, as if the lovely slope Adelaid's neck meeting her shoulders was already written in her memories, like she had been born knowing that face and hearing that slightly brassy voice. Like she had been created wanting to kiss the creamy forehead and high cheekbones and the corner of Adelaid's soft mouth, sticky red paint and all.</p><p>It was an <em>interesting</em> face, not just a pretty one. A strong face. Why hadn't the cigarette card captured Adelaid's aristocratic nose, the way her black eyebrows dipped towards its bridge and then flew out in a long straight line, and the wide, full lips? All the photographic wizardry seemed to have gone towards making her bosom look bigger.</p><p>Those lips really were made for kissing. Unlike Calam's own, which were thin and chapped. She knew her teeth were good but her upper lip tended to stretch and vanish a bit when she smiled. Well, Calam's lips weren't made for being kissed and her legs weren't made for strutting about on stage in only a pair of tights, with so open a mesh that Adelaid might as well be bare-legged like a little girl. Not that Adelaid's womanly thighs and the graceful curve of her calves were much like a child. Calam might not be kissable but she was quick on the draw, and Adelaid would have seen that — seen that Calam's gun was at her service, that there was no danger on Heaven and Earth that Adelaid had to fear so long as Calamity Jane was by her side.</p><p>"I need to get changed," Adelaid said, and Calamity couldn't explain the way her heart leapt to her throat at the thought of helping her. Revealing all that pale, silky skin. Adelaid's hand was slightly rougher in hers than she expected, the palm almost calloused.</p><p>Adelaid slapped pretty hard for a city girl, too.</p>
<hr/><p>"You sure you really need all them trunks and cases?" Calam helped the porter haul them onto the train station.</p><p>"I do," Adelaide said firmly. "These clothes are my only possessions of value in the world."</p><p>"I would've thought a showgirl like you would have all kinds of jewels and money and things." Calamity handed Adelaid into the cabin. She wasn't sure why she'd had the impulse, she never had it about women from home, but there was something so ladylike about Adelaid in her elegant gown that it just seemed right.</p><p>"Well, not so much as you might think. After all, a good girl can't take gifts from a man unless you know what he has in mind in return." She looked at Calamity through those gray eyes with the sooty lashes. Put in with a smutty finger, Calam's Ma would have said. "You know what I mean, don't you?"</p><p>"Sure do. Why, let a man buy you a sarsparilla, and the next thing you know, he wants you to shoot off his rival's hat in the middle of a saloon."</p><p>"I suppose that's the same thing in a way." Adelaid laughed a little. She did laugh, not a simpering titter like someone so pretty and pampered looked like she would have. Calam liked her laugh, and made up her mind to hear it as often as possible. "You're a funny girl, Calamity Jane."</p><p>Calam glowered a little. She didn't like Adelaid thinking she was funny. Of course, folks at home laughed at her some, but they all knew she could shoot the grins right off their faces if she wanted, even Wild Bill. Adelaid was different. When Adelaid had declared Calam would pull out her gun and hold it to her back, Calam had known there was no way in all God's Earth that she would ever do anything to threaten or harm Adelaid Adams. She wanted Adelaid to think she was dashing, protective. Pretty, even.</p><p>Well, Calam wasn't pretty, she knew that. Adelaid had mistaken her for a man. But she could be protective. If anyone tried to hold up this train, well, then Adelaid would see Calamity Jane in action, that was all. Maybe she'd even be grateful enough to offer her a kiss.</p><p>Now Adelaid was smiling at her as if she was sharing a joke, not a grumpy rough thing in trousers, and Calam softened at her expression. "You just are the prettiest girl I ever seen," Calam said.</p><p>"So you said." Adelaide coloured slightly, and impossibly, she was even prettier, as if a pure white rose had picked up a touch of pink in sunset light.</p><p>"I mean it. Why, you're prettier than, than fresh snow, and daffodils, and the light on the plain when dawn hits just right, and fluffy white clouds in a blue sky. If I were a man, I'd say I was just completely gone on you." The words seemed to run out without her control.</p><p>"That's very kind of you." Gosh darn it, Adelaid's cheeks were red, but she didn't seem to be wearing any of the paint she had packed. Calam wondered if they would feel hot if she touched them, and for some reason that thought made her stomach grow hot itself. "I hope your friends back in Deadwood agree."</p><p>"Oh, they couldn't be more excited to meet you than if the Archangel Michael came down to visit." Calamity paused, a flicker of uncertainty. She didn't want to offend this sophisticated woman. "Was that blasphemous?"</p><p>"Perhaps just a little." The curve of Adelaid's lips increased. There was no judgment in it.</p><p>"I weren't schooled very much, so I say things I shouldn't sometimes," Calam admitted. "But I'm not dumb."</p><p>"No, I'm sure you're not." Adelaide reached out and closed the gap between their seats with her hand, taking Calam's forearm and sliding her gloved fingers down to grasp her bare hand. Calamity stared, struck wordless, at the sight of the fine wool against her sunburned skin, the fingers interlocked. She was almost sure she could feel the warmth of Adelaid's skin through the fabric. "I think we're going to be good friends. Calam, I'm dreadfully nervous." She looked it, too. She was still flushed, and her breath was hitching. "This is a bigger adventure than I've ever been on."</p><p>"Why, a girl like you, who can stand up in front of hundreds of people in her altogethers and sing and dance, has courage enough for anything." Adelaid winced a little. "Anyhow, no need to be nervous about anything with Calamity Jane by your side. I'll fight off anyone who tries to harm you, promise."</p><p>"Will you promise that, whatever happens, you'll stay by my side?" Those red lips parted, and Calam had the desire to launch herself towards Adelaid and kiss them. They looked so plush, and as if they would taste sweeter than autumn's last apples. Calam felt dizzy. Why was she so set on kissing all of a sudden? She had never been the affectionate type, if slaps on the back didn't count.</p><p>"'Course I'll stay by your side. Don't you worry about that," she said.</p><p>It felt like a sacred contract but also, oddly, like one she had already made long ago. Like she had always been Adelaid's knight in shining armour, or at least buckskin.</p>
<hr/><p>"End of the line!" Calam sang out happily as they left the train. "Stagecoach doesn't get here for another two days. Meant to stay in Chicago a bit first, but I guess you were somewhat keen on being kidnapped."</p><p>"I was at that," Adelaid agreed, an odd tone to her voice. "Is there a hotel?"</p><p>"Sure is. Not a fancy one like you'd be used to, city lady like you." Calam helped haul Adelaid's luggage off the coach. "But it should be clean, and you can holler for me and I'll kill any critters or varmints."</p><p>"Oh. Good." Adelaid straightened her shoulders. "Which way?"</p><p>"My lady?"</p><p>Calam extended an arm and Adelaid, smiling, took it. "Escort me to my boudoir."</p><p>Five minutes later, Calam was raging. "What do you mean, there's only one room? In this one horse town? You can't tell me all of Dakota is staying here for the fun of it."</p><p>"Sorry, sir, but God-fearing folks've come from miles around to see this preacher, not just you and your wife. They say he's been having visions about the end of the world."</p><p>Calam squared her shoulders to set the man straight. She was starting to feel sensitive about being mistaken for a man. Everyone in Deadwood knew and respected Calamity Jane, and there was no call to keep calling her a man just because she didn't wear a corset and frills.</p><p>Adelaid was quicker. "That's quite all right, sir. My husband and I will share the room."</p><p>Calam was too taken aback to say anything. She stared at Adelaid, who was looking as cool as a summer stream and as respectable as a Sunday school teacher, there in her elegant blue gown and beautifully arranged hair.</p><p>"I'm afraid the room and bed are pretty small, ma'am." Something about Adelaid commandeered respect. "They're intended for single men."</p><p>"We will manage." Adelaid gave him a beautiful smile. "We've come too far to hear the inspired words of the preacher to give up now."</p><p>Calam let herself be swept along, and didn't turn on Adelaid until the door closed behind them in their room. "Why in Heaven's name did you let him think I was your husband? Why didn't you tell him we was two girls?"</p><p>Adelaid bit her lower lip, and wasn't that something, because Calam was immediately conscious of the desire to bite it too. "My dear, I just couldn't face the thought of trying to find someone to put us up or a way to get to the next town. I'm exhausted. And, besides. If there's lots of excitable people in town to hear the preacher they might, well. You might be hard to explain."</p><p>"Harder'n pretending I'm a man? Why would that be?"</p><p>"<em>Deuteronomy</em> 22:5."</p><p>Calam stared at her, and made up her mind to get the Bible she kept under her head and look up the verse as soon as she got home. "I ain't an ignorant heathen. I read my Bible."</p><p>Adelaid reached out a calming hand as if Calam was the frisky nervous one. It closed around Calam's upper arm, gentle and firm. "Oh, Calam, don't be mad. It's only for one night. The bed is small but we can squeeze in, can't we? Or I can sleep on the floor."</p><p>Calam looked around the dingy room, the windows that hadn't been cleaned in years, the dust, the hard, narrow bed. The room was tiny, and there wasn't enough room to swing a cat in it. Adelaid couldn't sleep on the floor without sleeping under the bed with the dust bunnies. A fine lady like that. If anyone was going to sleep on the floor, it would be Calam.</p><p>"It doesn't seem right, a pretty lady like you crammed in a bed with someone of the likes of me," she said helplessly.</p><p>"Oh, I've slept in worse places. I often had to share a bed when I was a maid."</p><p>"You were a servant?" Calam couldn't quite realise it. "But you're on <em>cigareet cards.</em>"</p><p>Adelaid looked cross somehow, as if Calam had something wrong. "I wasn't born a showgirl. Even a famous <em>artiste</em> has to come from somewhere."</p><p>"Sure. Ain't nothing wrong with being a maid neither. I'm not exactly fine folk myself. Makes you more approachable like."</p><p>The lines of Adelaid's brow and shoulders relaxed. "You're very sweet, Calam."</p><p>Calam blushed. It wasn't something she'd been told very often, but she found she liked it. Almost as much as she liked Adelaid. "Come on, let's get some food and a drink."</p>
<hr/><p>Adelaid seemed to expect Calamity Jane to be a big drinker.</p><p>"Sarsparilla's good enough for me," Calam said roughly. Adelaide seemed surprised, but followed her example, even if she did give kind of a longing glass to the bottles behind the bar as if she'd hoped to party a little. It was odd. Surely sophisticated showgirls who danced in their underpinnings got up to all kinds of risky stuff in their free time. Adelaid didn't seem like that. Adelaid was down to earth and practical and it was all confusing.</p><p>As Calam usually did with confusing things, she put it out of her mind, and did something else, namely challenging some of the men there to a darts match. If she was aware of Adelaid watching and showboated a little, put an extra swagger into her movements and pulled off some extra fancy moves, well, that was natural. Calam had to prove the honor of Deadwood in this town, and Adelaid had likely seen nothing like Calam's steadiness of hand and eye. Another reason to stick to sarsparilla, to keep her eye sharp.</p><p>She got her third triple twenty in a row and swung around to grin triumphantly. Adelaid lifted her glass of sarsparilla just as if she was a wife toasting her husband for real, something proud and proprietary about her smile, and also indulgent, as if Calam was cute as a frolicking baby lamb. Folks had stopped looking at Calam like she was cute when she was twelve and put on her first set of buckskins.</p><p>She felt that fire was consuming her face and turned back, and missed the board entirely.</p><p>There was a shout of laughter from the crowd. Calam whirled again, and Adelaid was laughing too. If one of her friends like Wild Bill or even Danny had laughed at her like that, Calam would have challenged them to fisticuffs until her temper was worked out. Somehow, she didn't mind Adelaid laughing at all, especially with that fond expression.</p><p>They were still laughing as they went up the stairs to their room. Calam was telling some ridiculous tall tale about thwarting train robbers, her boasting getting wilder and wilder with every disbelieving snort from her friend, and Adelaid half fell into the room with her. "My brave hero!" she gasped, clinging around Calam's neck for balance. "A girl sure does feel safe with you, Calam."</p><p>Calam grinned, pleased as punch, and also wondering if Adelaid had entirely been confining herself to sarsparilla. Adelaid's lips were very close to hers, and Calam had the strange idea pop into her head that of she really was a man, she'd be kissing Adelaid right about now. The thought made her pulse flutter in her neck.</p><p>Adelaid's grey eyes widened, and she stepped away. "I suppose we should wash and change. I'll lay our nightgowns out."</p><p>Calam blushed again. "Didn't think to bring one. Thought we'd be sleeping on the train and stagecoach, and wasn't intending to share a room in Chicago."</p><p>"Calamity Jane, you can't sleep with me in those filthy buckskins! I'll lay out one of my gowns for you."</p><p>Oh, the blush was getting worse. Adelaid probably didn't mean to shame her, but Calam felt like she had failed somehow, just like when she had been mistaken for a male assailant. Adelaid must think she was nasty. Calam quietly stripped to her muslin underthings, let down her ponytail, and washed at the basin.</p><p>When she turned, Adelaid was watching her with a strange expression. "Calam, your hair shines just like spun gold, and your skin is so pretty. So why do you wear those filthy clothes?"</p><p>"I ain't dirty. Ma taught me to be hygienic and healthy. But I never got the point of fussing over clothes, well, not until I saw how fine you look in them. Buckskins are practical, but they're kinda hard to wash. Without Ma helping, I don't know how."</p><p>"When we get to Deadwood, I'll wash all your things and make them sweet as the rain," Adelaid said.</p><p>Calam snorted. "Don't seem right, a fine lady like you doing my laundry."</p><p>"I told you, I wasn't born a showgirl, Calam." Adelaid's cheeks were red. "When I was personal maid to a showgirl, I looked after all her things and made them nice. She was... she wasn't always nice to me. It would be a pleasure to wash the things of someone like you."</p><p>"How wasn't she nice to you?" Calam asked, flaring up. "Who was she?"</p><p>Adelaid giggled, even though her gaze was downcast. "She said my voice wouldn't carry, and I didn't have the other assets to be a showgirl."</p><p>"Your voice is plain wonderful. What kind of assets?" Calam asked, puzzled, and Adelaid laughed again. "Oh, Calam. Get changed and come to bed."</p><p>Out of her corset and in a nightgown, hair around her face, Adelaid was almost a different girl, a softer girl. No less beautiful for that. Calam felt oddly shy as they snuggled down together.</p><p>"Calam?"</p><p>"Mm?" It sure was cozy, lying close with all Adelaid's slender curves beside her.</p><p>"Thank you for being my friend. I don't have a lot of friends. Never had the time to make them, I suppose. And I really like you. You're like no one I've ever met."</p><p>"Sure, you'll make lots of friends in Deadwood. Everyone's just crazy to meet you. Won't be able to believe I actually dragged Adelaid Adams back." Calam chuckled. "Guess it's a shame you're going on to Europe afterwards."</p><p>"Yes. Yes, I suppose it is," Adelaid said. "Go to sleep, Calam dear."</p><p>Calam did, but she was feeling confused, and couldn't make sense of her feelings. She drifted off into warmth.</p><p>When she woke, she was cuddled into Adelaid's side, one arm flung around her waist, face pressed into her bosom, their calves tangled together, and Adelaid was snoring, which should have been dreadful. It was the most beautiful sound in the world. Adelaid's chest was rising and falling gently, and Calam wanted.. she wanted...</p><p>She wanted to hold her forever, safe and secure in this bundle of blankets, just them alone in the world. She wanted tell Adelaid not to go to Europe, that she had to stay with Calam because she loved her. Wanted to propose marriage as if it was something one woman could propose to another. Wanted to run her hands through her long dark hair, and kiss her, and touch her. Suddenly every love song, every story made sense to her, because Adelaid was all those songs and stories rolled into one, and Calam would die for her, she would...</p><p>She turned over, slipped out of bed, and put her buckskins back on.</p>
<hr/><p>The Deadwood Stage still didn't arrive the next day, and the preacher hadn't arrived yet. The girls had the hotel make them a picnic basket, and they went for a walk, found a place where the sun showed green and gold through the leaves and the breeze was soft, and sat and ate and talked.</p><p>Calam was half distracted. <em>I love her</em>, she thought, as Adelaid shared a sly tale about the men courting the showgirl she worked for before she was famous. <em>I love her</em>, she thought, as Adelaid moved to a sunny place and threw her head back to feel the warmth on her skin, graceful neck exposed. <em>I love her,</em> she thought as they ate cold chicken and bread and spread out side by side on the blanket, not nearly as close as they had been the night before.</p><p>The thought ached, but it was happy, as well. It was a privilege to love a woman like this, even if it could never be requited. Be her knight, because after all she had fallen for her at first sight, like a knight in an old story. Calam closed her eyes to daydream about rescuing an Adelaid in trailing silk gowns and hair around her shoulders from all kinds of dangers, carrying her off on her horse, and never asking a thing in return. Not even a kiss.</p><p>Calam woke when Adelaid tickled her nose with a blade of grass. "What're you <em>doing</em>?" she demanded, outraged, and Adelaid dropped her sooty lashes.</p><p>"Making you pay attention to me. I missed you."</p><p>Calam glowered, and her heart hurt, and she'd never been as happy in her life.</p><p>They settled in bed together that night, and this time Calam was careful to turn her back on Adelaid so that she wouldn't accidentally cuddle her in her sleep. Not nice taking advantage like that, no matter how unconsciously, not when she knew she had feelings beyond ordinary friendship. She thought Adelaid seemed a little worried, but all the other girl said was, "Sweet dreams, Calam."</p><p>"Stagecoach'll most likely be here in the morning. You'll sleep in your own hotel bed tomorrow."</p><p>"That sounds lonely."</p><p>Adelaid leaned against Calam's back, draping an arm over her hips, and how could Calam object to that? It was not like she could <em>say</em> that the softness of a night-gown clad Adelaid pressed against her made her heart speed up and warm tenseness gather in her stomach and beneath her legs. Allowing her hand come up to cover Adelaid's where it pressed against her belly was just friendliness. "You could come stay in my cabin a while. It's not much, but it's safer'n a hotel by yourself," she blurted.</p><p>"Oh, Calam! That sounds lovely. But..."</p><p>"Forget it," grumbled Calam, blinking back tears. "G'night."</p><p>Adelaid moved, and Calam thought she was going to turn over, pull away from too much friendliness, but then Calam felt a quick kiss pressed against the nape of her neck. "Sweet dreams, my sweet Calamity Jane." She snuggled back into place, her arm warm around Calam's waist.</p><p>Calam was almost sure she would never get a wink of sleep again in her life, but eventually she drifted off.</p><p>She woke to dampness on her shoulders, and the sound of smothered but determined sniffling and sobbing. Adelaid was crying her pretty heart out on Calamity's back.</p><p>"Honey, whatever is wrong? You're getting me sopping wet."</p><p>"Sorry," said Adelaid, and then, "I'm <em>so</em> sorry."</p><p>"I didn't mean it. Come on, tell Calam what's wrong." Calam twisted around and managed to get in a better position for comforting, half up the bed with Adelaid held half on her lap, head buried on Calam's shoulder, one of Calam's hands stroking her hair and the other patting her bed. "You can tell me, and I'll set it right. Anyone you need me to fight for you?"</p><p>"No." Adelaid sobbed harder.</p><p>"Are you in trouble?" Calam demanded. It was the main reason she could think of for a girl to cry like that.</p><p>"I can't tell you. You'll hate me."</p><p>"I could never hate you. Never, ever. I love you like crazy," said Calam, forgetting all thoughts of restraint. " So you put that thought right out of your silly head, Adelaid Adams."</p><p>"Katie Brown."</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"My name's Katie," the girl in Calam's arms wailed.</p><p>"So where's Adelaid?"</p><p>"Paris."</p><p>"I seen you. Name on the door, singing and dancing in your costume, same as I saw on stage."</p><p>"It's not <em>my</em> costume. I was Adelaid's maid. I thought, I thought I'd like to dance on the stage, just once. And you were so dashing, I'd never met a girl like you, and you made me feel like I could do anything in the world. So I <em>pretended.</em> I thought I could leave afterwards, no harm done. But I don't want to leave, I want to live in your cabin and wash your clothes and sleep by you at night forever and I love you and you'll <em>hate</em> me."</p><p>For one moment Calam had felt outraged and betrayed. This girl had lied to her, had made a fool of her, and oh Wild Bill was going to laugh his head off, she'd never hear the end of it. Giving her word to bring back Adelaid Adams and turning up with her <em>maid.</em></p><p>Calam's brain suddenly caught up. "You <em>love</em> me?"</p><p>Adelaid—Katie—choked on a sob. "I know it must seem awful strange to you. I thought it was strange when some of the chorus girls fell in love. But I am so much in love with you I can hardly bear it, you sweet, brave, ridiculous woman. And you'll hate me," she said wretchedly, returning to her theme.</p><p>"Told you," Calam managed, although she felt like dandelion clocks were popping off behind her eyes. "Could never hate you. I love you like crazy."</p><p>"You do?"</p><p>"I sure do."</p><p>Katie surged up, and Calam's lips were being kissed, and it was somehow the softest and yet the most burning thing she had ever felt. Just mouths pressed together, but hot liquid desire pulsed through her, as if her lips were connected directly to the cleft between her legs. Katie's arms were around her neck and her face was wet with tears and there was damp hair getting in between them and Calam wished the kiss would never end.</p><p>"Not like a sister?" Katie asked.</p><p>"I never had a sister, but if I did, I sure wouldn't kiss her like <em>that</em>." Calam managed to wriggle back down the bed, bringing Katie with her, so that Katie was lying on top of her, faces close together, Katie's legs over hers.</p><p>Katie laughed through her tears. "I love you. What are you going to do about it?"</p><p>"I'm not sure," Calam admitted. "Can I kiss you again?"</p><p>"Always," said Katie, and this time one or the other of them relaxed their mouth and their tongues met and it was like nothing else in all the world. Somehow they were taking turns to trail kisses on each other's necks and that felt almost too much to bear, and hands were pushing aside nightclothes to find skin, until Calam's finger was pressing inside of Katie and Calam was pushing up against the thigh thrust between her legs and they were both making sounds Calam didn't know she was capable of making.</p><p>"<em>Gosh</em>," she said, when they were shaking and clamped together, still kissing everywhere they could reach. She was still burning and her body was <em>twitching</em> in the most secret places, and her hand was as slick as she'd made Katie's thigh. "Gosh."</p><p>"Yes," said Katie. "I love you."</p><p>"I'll tell you what I'm going to do about it."</p><p>"I thought you already had," Katie said, and she was so beautiful like that, red and mussed up and with that glorious smile, that Calam thought she would die.</p><p>"I'm going to take you back to Deadwood, and be proud that you're Katie Brown. My girl. You'll dance and sing and I will be so proud I will burst. And I'll take you back to my cabin. Katie and Calam's cottage. I will bring you morning glories every day and kiss you awake every dawn."</p><p>"Not <em>too</em> close to dawn. I had enough of that as a maid," Katie said.</p><p>"I'll let you sleep in all morning and have a warm fire and breakfast on the table for you, then. I'm pretty good at splitting wood and cooking plain food."</p><p>"It sounds like heaven, darling."</p><p>Calam had a guilty moment of remembering just what her cabin looked like, no one's idea of heaven even if the surroundings were, but it would be all right, she told herself. Katie was an angel, and not a fancy lady at all. And Katie <em>loved</em> her. Loved <em>her</em>.</p><p>"Thought I'd be bringing back some stuck-up showgirl, not a wife," Calam said. Katie punched her shoulder lightly and kissed her again.</p><p>Kissing really had been a good idea after all. And Calam was apparently more kissable than she had thought, at least to Katie, the most kissable girl in the world.</p><p>And who else in the world mattered?</p>
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